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Saturday, July 06, 2013

The “Out-tah State-tahs” Have Arrived

Yep, the Patterson tribe has invaded the Pine Tree State from several different states out west (when you’re in Maine all other states are out west). There will be twenty four “Pattersons” at the first ever Patterson Family Reunion at the “Old Patterson Homestead” in Belfast, Maine.

Also included will be my mother’s sister, Eunice, and her daughter with her husband, her grand daughter, and her son and his wife (a lot of “hers” in this sentence) which will round out Friday’s big event to 30 humaniods. The katts are going ballistic. With all these youngins running to and froe, they have tucked their tails between their legs and retreated to the high ground (that is, the bedroom).

Way back when Hector was just a pup, the Riley clan, my mother's family, would have a family reunion every summer and we would all congregate at a beach on Lake Saint George. This year’s gathering is reminiscent of days gone by. The only thing missing will be the big kettle of steamed clams. Back then clams were a “freebie”, you just had to dig them. Today they are a delicacy and you have to give an arm and a leg plus the shirt off you back and one month’s Social Security just to get a peck of them.

The strategic plan is to do the meals at the homestead right in the driveway and then the kids will do outings from here while “moms/grandmas and dads/grandpas” (namely Mike, Shauna, Darrell, and Judy) get the fixings ready for the next feeding frenzy. I can see that we needed to invest in a brewery, this crew can certainly go through the beer. Fortunately the kids have been stocking the cooler with all sorts of beer / alca-pop.

Okay, so here it is. A few group photos of the Darrell Patterson clan minus our son Brian. Put your cursor over the pictures to see the inscriptions.

And here’s a group picture of the Mike Patterson clan.

Of course, we have “a ton” more pictures of all the goings on over the past three days, but that will have to wait until we catch a minute to glean out the good from the bad and the ugly. It was just a matter of snapping as many pictures as we could possibly snap in hopes of catching a few good ones. We’re, also, copying all the photos from each of our children’s cameras as well as my brother’s so we’ll have well over a thousand pictures to go through.

Happy Trails Until Next Time.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (I Thessalonians 5:28)